“I know beforehand that I will not have the book the client is asking for in 90% of cases.” By Julieta Lionetti CARACAS: Just 1% of titles published in Spanish ever make it to Venezuela, says Roger Michelena, owner of Librerias Michelena and editorial director and founder of Ficcion Breve, an independent literary trade publisher in Caracas. Of the many …

By Andres Hax Over the course of each year, there are many important literary prizes in Latin America and Spain, and as this newsletter progresses we will note each as they arrive. But a recent news item from Venezuela gives us an appropriate excuse to mention the Romulo Gallegos prize for the novel. The news is that Blanco Nocturno by …

By Emily Williams No friend to publishing (see our earlier coverage here) Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has nevertheless started to implement his four-part color coded “Revolutionary Reading Plan.” Announced in May, the goal of the project as stated by the Venezuelan government, is “the democratization of books and reading, with a new conception of reading as a collective act under …